Fig. 8: miR-1-3p is sufficient to initiate male development in B. dorsalis.

a The sexual phenotype of the white/brown pupae sexing strain (wp^+/−) adults having an miR-1-3p knock-out deletion (miR-1-3p⁻) mediated by CRISPR/Cas9 and after embryonic injection of the miR-1-3p mimic (miR-1-3p⁺). wp⁺ are genetic males (XY) and wp⁻ are genetic females (XX). The red bar represents the number of miR-1-3p mutant adults, and the blue bar represents the number of phenotypic male adults which developed from the white pupae (XX wp⁻) embryos treated with miR-1-3p agomir. NC is the control group injected with the agomir negative control. (b) Sex-specific transcripts of Bdtra and Bddsx in WT females and males and XY miR-1-3p mutant phenotypic females. −1, −2, −4, −5, and −7 represent different types of miR-1-3p mutant females. (c) Phenotypes of XX wp⁻ female (left) and XY wp⁺ male (middle) adults from the white/brown pupae sexing strain, and an XY wp⁺ miR-1-3p mutant phenotypic female (right) induced by CRISPR/Cas9. (d) Mature vitellogenic ovaries from an XX wp⁻ female (left) and an XY wp⁺ miR-1-3p mutant phenotypic female (right).